ProLogis Reduces UK Weighting with $320M Sale

LONDON-In one of the UK’s biggest industrial property deals, ProLogis’s European Properties Fund has sold 13 distribution facilities across the UK to Standard Life for £183 million ($320 million). And additionally, ProLogis has sold two facilities in the UK directly to Standard Life for £8 million ($14 million).

The properties represent 2.2 million sf of distribution space and are located primarily in the Midlands and Southeast markets. ProLogis put the properties up for sale in order to enhance the geographic diversity of the fund, where it owns 29% and acts as fund manager. Following the sale, the proportion of total assets held by the fund in the UK has fallen from 32% to 25%.

Jeffrey H. Schwartz, president of international operations for ProLogis says: “We concluded that the fund was overweighted in the UK. By reducing the weighting of prime, but lower yielding, long-term leased UK assets within the fund, the overall yield to investors is expected to increase by approximately 35 basis points.”

Macquarie Capital Partners advised ProLogis.